Private Branch Exchanges (PBXs) and voice mail systems are ubiquitous in offices around the world. Their capabilities for providing access to messages are, however, rigidly fixed and quite limited. For example, a typical PBX system may provide a user with a voice mail box and allow the user to access messages in the mail box by calling a number within the PBX. Some systems allow users to access messages in their mail box when they are away from the office by dialing a phone number through the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). In either event, access to individual voice mail messages, if there are several, can be quite time-consuming as the user has to listen through each message from the first to the last, many of which may not be of much importance to the user. There is no way for the user to know ahead of time which message in a group of messages are important unless the user has already listened to all the messages. Further, unless the user deletes messages, they will accumulate in the user's mail box, thus making the process of finding important messages even more problematic and time-consuming.
Meanwhile, as workers become more mobile, remote access to voice mail becomes more important. However, the problems inherent in conventional voice mail systems, coupled with the demands of attending to business tasks while away from the office, make the experience of accessing messages even more unpleasant.